


Jagd

by StealthyPeacock



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, One Shot, Seattle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:02:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27323947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StealthyPeacock/pseuds/StealthyPeacock
Summary: It was supposed to be a simple handoff, but everything went wrong. Things don't go as planned if Seattle's boogeyman is on the hunt.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Jagd

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ColossalMistake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColossalMistake/gifts).



> I started writing this as soon as I got my prompt so imagine the face I made when I saw you post this in #worm-fanfiction two weeks later during the one time I was actually in the channel.  
> “Whoops Echidna was too much and now the city is walled off. Anyways, here's some fun adventures in Seattle instead.”  
> In honor of your discerning taste I give you my best attempt at a Worm styled slasher...

Naoki hated working in the rain. It was cold, the way it made the normally billowy robe of his costume cling to him was infuriating, and worst of all, bad storms always reminded him of the day his homeland was crushed by Leviathan—something that the locals also understood well. It was nice to be able to relate to them even if it was over something as unpleasant as history with the scaly bastard.

Normally, the rain wouldn't have been such a problem for him, but he just had to wind up working in the rainiest city in the whole damn country. When the Elite had started applying more pressure on them down in San Francisco, the boss decided to expand the organization north and sent a group to establish themselves in Seattle. When Naoki had first arrived at the start of summer he thought that the city’s reputation had been overblown, but once fall arrived the sky quickly proved the claims had been more than valid.

The contact for their latest deal had said to meet him in Seward Park at the bench on the Spine trail. So now here he was, stuck trudging up a muddy forest path in the middle of a late night downpour, and no one had remembered to bring a fucking umbrella.

Naoki looked to the man leading their small group up the path and asked him a question.

“Hey Toshiro, how much longer until we get there?”

“Not much longer. The rendezvous point is past the bend just up ahead, we should get there in a minute,” Toshiro answered quietly.

Toshiro cut an imposing figure, standing at well over six feet in height and built like a brick shithouse. How soft spoken he was always clashed with Naoki’s impression of him. He was dressed formally, but the rain had soaked through the shirt, revealing his full back tattoos that normally barely peeked over his shirt collar. Despite his reserved nature he served as an excellent second in command and had a good head on his shoulders.

Naoki took the time he had left to look over his other men. Yoshida was carrying the money in a small backpack with a look of boredom on his face. Koichi was scanning over the treeline, his hand never straying far from the handgun at his hip. And Lee was shielding a cigarette from the elements, seemingly determined to get a smoke in no matter what.

Naoki adjusted his mask and increased his pace slightly until he was walking alongside Toshiro.

“I’ll take point on this. Other capes tend to behave better when I deal with them directly,” he told his second. Toshiro nodded in acknowledgement. The rainfall began to ease up until it was more of a drizzle as they finally reached their destination.

Sat upon the bench beneath an umbrella was their contact. The man was dressed in a strange mix of tinker devices and bodysuit, with formal clothes overtop. He wore a flat cap and thick lensed goggles that covered the top half of his face.

“Secondhand, I presume?” Naoki inquired.

“Correct. And I figure you’re Kamaitachi?” Secondhand asked, mangling the pronunciation of Naoki’s cape name. Naoki decided that correcting him would be a waste of his time.

“You got it in one. So was the job a success? Do you have them?”

Secondhand grinned, reached into a satchel at his hip, and held up a paper-filled binder.

“It’s all here, every detail on security and staff we could confirm along with their financial records for the past quarter,” he said as he extended the binder to Naoki.

He leafed through the pages for a moment, scanning to ensure that they appeared legitimate. The documents were branded with the logo of Cygnus Holdings—the Elite’s thinly veiled shell company in the area. Once he was satisfied by their validity he gestured to Yoshida.

“Pay the man.” 

As the money was handed off, a sickening noise cut through the air followed by a pair of thuds somewhere behind Naoki. He turned to see a white man dressed in combat gear standing above the headless body of Toshiro. When he looked closely the man appeared to be made of dozens of drawings layered atop one another. In his right hand was a blood coated machete and the other held an assault rifle.

“Stand down. Hands behind your head,” the man said in monotone.

“Shit!” Koichi shouted as he drew his gun and fired rounds into the man. The blood painted the foliage behind him as the shots rang out and the man slumped to the ground. A loud clap rang out in the air—Secondhand was gone.

Naoki stared down at Toshiro, too stunned to move as he watched the blood flow out of his friend's severed head. 

“W-what the fuck was that?” Koichi stuttered.

“Nope, nope, nope, nope,” Lee said, repeating his mantra as he began sprinting down the path.

“-tachi we have to get out of here! Come on!” Yoshida shouted as he pulled on Naoki’s robe.

Naoki started to move with him when suddenly he heard a voice.

“Did I fall?” Toshiro asked, his head back on his body.

Toshiro sat upright as the others stared at him wordlessly.

That was when they heard the shifting in the dirt; the Drawn Man was moving again. He brought himself back to his feet and once again leveled his weapons towards them. 

“I’m not going to ask again. Stand. Down,” the Drawn Man ordered them.

“Run!” Naoki ordered. Without looking back, he began to pull on his power as he charged towards the Drawn Man. 

Kamaitachi kicked out with the shifting winds that made up his leg. He made contact with the man’s hip and cleaved through to his shoulder, severing his arm in a whirlwind of arterial spray and knocking him into a tree.

As his leg reformed Kamaitachi glanced back at the man as he carefully took in a deep breath to refill his lungs. In the Drawn Man’s remaining hand he saw a small glowing light. Before Kamaitachi could process what he was looking at, the shockwave hit, knocking him flat on his chest. Agony filled his ears and all that he could hear was ringing.

Kamaitachi turned his head to look down the path where his men had run. There was a small crater and lots of debris—he could see the shape of their bodies in the mud.

The Drawn Man had pulled himself back to his feet once more and reached for the pistol at his hip as he stumbled toward Kamaitachi. There wasn’t the slightest change in his expression despite the fact that half his chest had been carved away—his paper-like organs were clearly visible where the kick had shorn away his ribcage. The Drawn Man leveled the gun at Kamaitachi, but he was too late, Kamaitachi had caught his breath.

Kamaitachi let the wind consume his whole body as he pounced through the remains of the man’s torso, eviscerating him. Kamaitachi continued along his path, headed towards his men and the crater. He was left panting as he returned to his regular body but forced himself to keep running. He prayed that Toshiro’s revival hadn’t been a one off event, and as he closed the distance his prayers were answered. He saw the mud fly back into place as his men started to rise up to their feet.

“Keep going! Head into the woods!” Kamaitachi screamed as his hearing returned.

He reached out with his arm and let it become wind, extending it as far as he could to herd his men. They had barely entered the treeline when the sound of machine gun fire filled the air. Bullets harried them as they ran deeper through the woods. One caught Kamaitachi in the shoulder and another hit Yoshida in the head, but Toshiro picked up his body and carried him over his shoulders as he ran.

Koichi was at the head of the pack, and he tried to separate from the main group, but before he made it very far the Drawn Man cut off his escape. A loud thump rang out through the air followed by an explosion that took off Koichi’s leg. As the ringing in his ears faded all Kamaitachi could hear was Koichi’s hollering; nobody had stopped for him.

“He has a fucking _grenade launcher_!” Lee screeched as he picked up his pace into an all out sprint.

Finally, they had breached the treeline and reached the road. The SUV they arrived in was just a little bit further. Toshiro fumbled around trying to grab the key from his coat while carrying Yoshida, he managed to grab it and unlocked the car before he tossed the keys to Kamaitachi.

“Catch!” he shouted and began piling himself and Yoshida into the back seats.

  
Kamaitachi jammed himself into the driver’s seat and once everyone was inside he floored it. The Drawn Man emerged from the woods, dragging the limp body of Koichi, the macabre scene illuminated by the headlights as they drove past. The SUV flew down the road away from their pursuer, narrowly missing another grenade before he began to riddle the back of the vehicle with bullets.  
  
They had almost made it to the parks exit when Kamaitachi saw the flashing green and white lights of PRT vans. To avoid being cut off he drove straight over the curb and across the grass. Kamaitachi weaved the SUV between the trees lining the curbside before the tires regained firm traction on the pavement and he sped away. His attention was split with one half on the road and the other on the rearview, watching for any pursuit.  
  
“Okay, men, stay calm, I have a plan!” Kamaitachi began laying out his orders. “I’m gonna drop you guys once we hit Rainer and go to ditch the car. If we keep using it the PRT could track us. If I don’t come back within thirty minutes, pack up and split up. You can regroup in five days at the bar in Eastside, I’ll meet you there if I can. If I don’t show up, Toshiro, you call Oyabun and relay the situation and he will sort it out.”  
  
“Are you serious? Naoki, what has you so shaken up? The job went bad, but that's nothing we haven't dealt with before,” Toshiro asked dumbfounded.  
  
“Yeah, well those times we didn’t have Seattle’s fucking boogeyman on our tail! I’ve heard about this guy before. He doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t eat, the fucker doesn't stop—period! If he’s looking for us the only thing we can hope for is a trail gone cold—because if he can follow us he will until he sees this through!”  
  
The car went quiet as the words sank in. A minute later they had arrived at the drop off—close to their hideout at the old marina. Turned out Leviathan attacking was a fine way to dry up an otherwise thriving yachting scene, and Naoki and his men found the old buildings there a fine base of operations.  
  
“Be careful, Naoki,” Toshiro said gravely.  
  
“Same to you,” Naoki answered. “Remember the plan. Thirty minutes—no more.”  
  
Once the door slammed shut Naoki put the pedal to the metal. He had a goal in mind—the airfield at the south end of the lake. It took a couple minutes of reckless driving but eventually he reached his goal.  
  
Naoki turned onto the road that led to the entrance. He built as much speed as he could manage until he smashed the SUV through the gates. Cracks webbed across the windshield and the airbags deployed, but he didn’t let up on the gas, and cut through the airbag using the wind that made up his hand.  
  
Naoki lowered all of the windows as he raced towards the end of the airstrip—straight into the waters of Lake Washington. At the last moment he took a deep breath before becoming wind and bailing out of the vehicle. The SUV launched off the steep shore, flying forward into the depths below.  
  
Naoki watched the vehicle sink into the water, and once he was satisfied that would be enough to create a dead end he leapt over the ledge and let his body become one with the wind. He flew along the surface of the water, his barely corporeal body skipping along the lake like a stone. He needed to stop a few times to breathe before launching off again, but he didn’t stop for long, wasting as little time as possible as he raced back to the marina.  
  
Once Naoki had made it back he dragged himself up onto the remains of the dock and flopped onto his back, panting hard. The rush across the water had pushed him to his limits. After a moment of rest he forced himself back onto his feet and began stumbling over to the hideout. He wasn’t sure how long it had taken him to get back, but even if his men were gone Naoki needed to get into some civilian clothes.  
  
He opened the door and shuffled inside, closing the door behind him quickly. In his haste he hadn’t noticed what he was standing in—large puddles of crimson were dispersed across the floor with smeared trails leading into the next room. The puddles receded into nothingness right before Naoki’s eyes as though they were never there. Three gunshots rang out around the corner and the monotone voice of the Drawn Man spoke.  
  
“Gasconade reporting in, the intel was good. The yakuza led me back to their base. I have three more in my custody. Awaiting pick up at the Parkshore Marina.”  
  
Naoki glanced around the corner to see the Drawn Man facing the doorway, a small unsettling smile on his face. Naoki heard something land on the floor behind him.  
  
“Make that four.”  
  
He tried to shift but he was too slow. The grenade blew and Naoki joined his comrades.


End file.
